Walked down a street I rarely do today

[conuly]

Dear god, that street has a lot of cats in varying degrees of feralness. One house with a large lot has at least a dozen hanging out there at any given point of time. Another house with a small lot has its own colony, at least three adult queens and two litters of kittens at distinctly different ages. Somebody is feeding these cats, but they're not doing anything to reduce the surplus population.

I kinda want to TNR the lot of them. Or, rather, I want to T them, have a rescue organization handle the N, and then give them an address to R them back to. (Except the kittens, who'd get rehomed, not returned.) With good timing the whole process wouldn't take much longer than a few weeks. But there's the iffy issue of setting up traps on other people's property....

(Plus the other issues of not having the time or energy to do any of this, let alone the cash. Can't save 'em all.)

Maybe I can put in a call to a cat rescue organization that does TNRs anyway. They might be willing to wade in and handle this. If they're not overwhelmed. (LOL. Of course they're overwhelmed.)

Comments

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, there's a huge debate going on here in town because they are doing TNR. Oh, the howls from the nice white neighborhoods where there are cat colonies.

They will feed the cats, but they don't want to have them trapped and neutered. WTF?!

They literally said, "If you trap them, then just take them away and have them euthanized."

(sigh)

I would say let a cat rescue know about them, and then at least they'll be on a list that someone will get to some day.

[conuly]

They'd rather euthanize them than sterilize them, is that what you said!?

[adafrog]

That's cool that there is a rescue organization around there that does TNR.

[wpadmirer]

Yep. Don't ask me where that lack of logic came from.

[shadowkat]

I know there's a cat rescue agency in Brooklyn that you can contact, and possibly Best Friends -- which is now in Manhattan. One of my former co-workers is heavily involved with Best Friends.

Although I'm guessing you already know about both.

[conuly]

Oddly, no. I've never tnr'd before. Even the kittens, they were going to be rehomed from the start.

[boxofdelights]

My next-door neighbor feeds ferals. I don't understand why she didn't want to call Friends of Ferals, but when I found a litter of kittens in my garage, I called them and she hugged me. Who can understand people?

Anyway, my local feral cat TNR group definitely will not put traps on the property of people who don't ask them to, but I got my neighbor's permission so they put traps in the likeliest spots on her property and mine, but only in places where I could keep an eye on them and call as soon as a cat was caught.

They provide the traps and pick up the cats as soon as they're caught. They have arrangements with vets to neuter and vaccinate at cost. They only do TNR; I had to persuade a different cat rescue group to foster and find homes for the kittens.

They do this every weekend. They got me on their schedule within a month of my call. I don't know what the feral cat situation is like where you are, but I bet they are much less busy now than they were in spring.

I expected them to ask me for a donation, but they didn't. So it didn't cost me anything but a phone call and an evening of checking on traps.

The Humane Society here does the county's Animal Control, so they can pick up strays, but they would not have done anything but euthanize all the cats.


You could call your local cat rescue organization and ask if they have any advice? Maybe they would be willing to mail some literature to the cat feeders.

[conuly]

You could call your local cat rescue organization and ask if they have any advice? Maybe they would be willing to mail some literature to the cat feeders.

That's an idea. The ASPCA has flyers on the joy of TNR, free to print - maybe I can print a few and tape them up and down the block, with extra attention to one of the two houses. (The other one is abandoned, so....)

[sabotabby]

Yeah, I'd contact the rescue org. Even if they're overwhelmed, they might be able to refer you to someone else.

Incidentally, Sabot was an adult cat when she was trapped and she was able to be rehomed. Now she's all snuggly and such. Though it was likely that she wasn't born feral.

[rhoda_rants]

Oy, that's a lot of cats. What does TNR stand for? All I can come up with "Take 'n Raise," but I suspect it's more complicated than that.

[conuly]

Trap-Neuter-Release

[conuly]

To an extent, all cats are born somewhat feral, but I know what you mean.

I'll get precise addys today and then email 'em.

[shadowkat]

1. Scean Casey Animal Rescue

2. Best Friends in New York - former co-worker/boss used to go to their rescue workshop and facility in Utah.. And volunteers heavily with them. She gave them high reviews, along with other co-workers.

[conuly]

You're a doll. I was just gonna google, but personal recommendations are best.

[shadowkat]

Both were rec'd to me as places to adopt a cat or pet. Best Friends is the best --- I have a former co-worker who loves them. They have these huge adopt events. The Scean Casey Center was rec'd by various people at my church, who volunteer in animal rescue.

[zesty_pinto]

I recently read about how Philly has the equivalent of a "second chance" program with unadoptable ferals, reading about this makes me wonder if they can do something similar with those felines? I know there's recent reports of a new bodega killer program, but those bodegas need their classic bodega cats, imo.

[conuly]

I was just about to post that article!

I'm not quite sure their cats are all true ferals. Part ferals, maybe. But then, these kitties don't appear to all be true ferals either, so.

At any rate, the policy in NYC - and it's a sound policy - is that you should not permanently remove a happy, fed cat from its support structure unless it is in a dangerous situation or is sick or injured. These cats are being fed. They have their whole feline families with them. They're happy. Once they've been fixed, and have had at least one round of rabies vaccinations, they're better off going back home, where they know the territory.